To battle disease, apes may need vaccines

"We looked at the rates of vaccination in human populations both in host countries and potential tourists, and at the potential vaccines in development that could be used for great apes,” says ecologist Sadie Ryan. (Credit: iStockphoto)

UC SANTA BARBARA (US) — Researchers say infectious disease, like poaching and habitat loss, threatens the survival of African great apes.

Despite the work of dedicated conservationists, efforts to save our closest living relatives from ecological extinction are largely failing, and new scientific approaches are necessary to analyze major threats and find innovative solutions.
In response to this crisis, researchers at University of California, Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) have conducted a study that illustrates how severely disease threatens the long-term survival of wild gorillas and chimpanzees...

http://www.futurity.org/top-stories/to-battle-disease-apes-may-need-vaccines/